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Fang Tea

Healthy competition can be a very good thing. In the case of tea farmers and producers, tea competitions can drive participants to learn more and create better teas. It can be good for tea drinkers as well.

Taiwan has been organizing tea competitions for nearly 40 years, and these competitions have raised standards and improved the reputation of the industry. But not all competitions deserve the same levels of admiration.

I asked three experienced Taiwan hands to help explain how Taiwan tea competitions work, and what can be expected of competition teas.

A trip to Flushing from New Jersey is not exactly a hop, skip, and jump. It took about 2 hours from door-to-door. It included walking, switching trains, and navigating subway lines. Is a cup of tea worth this much trouble?

It was for the Fang Gourmet Tea Expo.

For more than five years, Fang Gourmet Tea has hosted an Expo in the Sheraton LaGuardia East Hotel. The Expo lasts several weeks, and includes demonstrations on topics like pestle tea, gongfu tea steeping competitions, and exhibits of jade or pottery.

Fang Gourmet Tea’s Expo is one of those places where you can find a cup of tea worth climbing mountains for. It isn’t just the tea – it’s the whole experience.

If you’ve attended the Coffee & Tea Fest and have that in mind as the typical expo experience, you will find Fang’s expo to be a refreshing change of pace. The atmosphere is more relaxed, yet more focused. Here, you can sit with other attendees around a gongfu tea service as tea is steeped before you. You take in all the sights, aromas, tastes and other impressions of the tea makes upon you.

The expo is a richly rewarding experience. The Fang expo is one of the (maybe the only) places in New York where you can smell tea being freshly roasted while learning to appreciate wood-fired and rock mineral teaware.

Wood-fired Teaware Set

Wood-fired ceramics require extra care to create. Clays need to be heated to certain temperatures at certain points for certain durations in the firing process, so there are recipes of woods that used at various stages of firing. Some woods burn hotter. Some burn faster. As a result, not every wood-firing attempt is successful. But when they are, each piece has its distinct colors and marks from the tea and ash. Each piece has something to admire.

Rock mineral teaware are true treasures. The combinations of clay and pulverized mineral used result in distinctive works of art unique to each creation. But these are not minerals chosen simply for their beauty. Rock mineral teaware enhances the quality of tea.

To test this theory, Fang conducted an experiment. They invited customers to purchase a tea storage jar made of rock mineral clay. Those jars were then filled with tea leaves. The owners of those jars signed a seal on the jar, agreeing not to open these jars for 6 months. When the time had passed, the jars were opened, and the tea was steeped alongside the same tea leaves that had not been stored in the rock mineral jars. In blind tastings, the rock mineral stored tea garnered significantly more votes than the other teas.

If that weren’t enough, Fang also offered liu bao teas. Like its cousin pu’er, liu bao is a “dark tea” that is growing in popularity in the U.S. Fang had liu bao teas aged 5 and 9 years.

Of course, Fang offers teas and teawares year-round, but the expo allows these stars to shine a little brighter.

Often, the quickest and easiest way to learn about tea is to simply ask someone knowledgeable. There is no need to run a search, buy a book or take a class to piece together information when you can easily walk up and ask an expert. But when you do so, you want to be sure the person is actually an expert. Some tea shops can provide a wealth of information.

Many tea vendors or shops provide tea education or information in one form or another. If the shop isn’t busy, you may be able to get the owner to sit with you and tell you about his/her teas.

Other times a more structured session is appropriate. This may be a class, a workshop, or a tasting.

In any case, tea education can mean something different. There are a few things to consider when going to tea shops for education:

Who Is Instructing?

You will want to gauge the knowledge and experience level of the person(s) giving instruction. If, for example, your instructor’s knowledge is based on books, would you prefer the time-savings of him/her telling you what you could read for yourself? You’ll want to find out a few things about the instructor:

1. How long has the instructor been working in the tea industry?
2. Has he/she been to the place(s) of tea origin?
3. What resources (people and other) does the instructor have for his/her own continuing education? Where does the instructor go when he/she doesn’t know the answer to a question?

What Is The Approach?

There is no one approach to tea education. Most are made of a combination of tenets.

1. There is usually an underlying Philosophy of Tea.

With some Oriental approaches, this could be Zen or Daoist. An Oriental approach could emphasize self-awareness, or a deepening of the relationship between yourself, your surroundings, and the tea. The Epicurean philosophy is another that may be assumed. This philosophy looks to develop the sensory awareness and sophistication of the tea student. The course may employ more than one philosophy, but it is important to get an idea of the philosophies. If you view “cha qi” as unscientific fluff, you’d be disappointed if a majority of the education were dedicated to the topic.

2. There may be a Set of Practices that must be applied.

In other words, there is a certain Way that tea must be done; otherwise, it isn’t truly tea. A Japanese tea ceremony has a very precise set of practices and rituals compared to a Chinese or Western style of service. Conflict and disappointment can arise if you and the instructor disagree on the “right” way to do tea.

3. A certain ratio of information-to-experience must be held.

Some education programs hold that exposing students to the taste experience of teas provides the majority of the education. These students can then begin to intuit necessary information. Others favor information, assuming that the learning will be effectively brought to mind when the tasting experiences arise. Not every student will respond the same to the mix being offered.

A Few Examples

of Montreal offers a wide range of workshops with various approaches. Some focus on specific places of origin, like Taiwan. Others explore the gustatory elements of appreciation, as with tea and scotch. Others combine tea and lifestyle, like Japanese teas and the impact of Zen on Japanese tea culture.

of Flushing, New York is much more of a “harmonize yourself with tea” approach. You can expect more gaiwans, yixing pots, and a meditative aspect as students seek to find the optimal way to bring tea and drinker into balance.